1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to laser markable compositions and articles made therefrom, in particular to colour laser markable security documents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Security cards are widely used for various applications such as identification purposes (ID cards) and financial transfers (credit cards). Such cards typically consist of a laminated structure consisting of various paper or plastic laminates and layers wherein some of them may carry alphanumeric data and a picture of the card holder. So called ‘smart cards’ can also store digital information by including an electronic chip in the card body. A principal objective of such security cards is that they cannot be easily modified or reproduced in such a way that the modification or reproduction is difficult to distinguish from the original.
Two techniques frequently used for preparing security documents are laser marking and laser engraving. In literature, laser engraving is often incorrectly used for laser marking. In laser marking, a colour change is observed by local heating of material, while in laser engraving material is removed by laser ablation.
Well known in the field of laser markable security documents is the use of laser markable polymeric supports. Laser marking produces a colour change from white to black in a laser markable support through carbonization of the polymer, usually polycarbonate as disclosed in e.g. EP-A 2181858.
During the past last years, there is an increased interest of using laser markable layers. The advantage of using a laser markable layer coated on a support instead of a laser markable support, is that a support can be used which has better physical properties than the laser markable supports, such as for example a higher flexibility than a polycarbonate support as disclosed in e.g. EP-A 2567825.
There is also an increased interest in using laser marking to produce coloured images, for example in security documents, but also in various other applications. Therefore, laser markable layers are used which are composed of colour forming compounds (also called “leuco-dyes”) which can change from essentially colourless or pale-coloured to coloured when exposed to for example heat, such as disclosed in for example EP-A 2648920.
The colour laser markable layers may comprise an infrared absorbing dye (IR dye) or an infrared absorbing pigment (IR pigment), both absorbing the IR radiation and converting it into heat.
An advantage of using IR dyes is that the absorption spectrum of an IR dye tends to be narrower than that of an IR pigment. This allows the production of multicoloured articles and security documents from precursors having a plurality of laser markable layers containing different IR dyes and colour forming compounds. The IR dyes having a different maximum absorption wavelength can then be addressed by IR lasers with corresponding emmision wavelengths causing colour formation only in the laser markable layer of the addressed IR dye. Such multicolour articles have been disclosed in for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,449, EP-A 2719540 and EP-A 2719541.
A problem of colour laser markable materials comprising an IR dye and a leuco dye is often their poor daylight stability. When such materials, for example security documents, are exposed to daylight for a long time, a background stain becomes more and more pronounced.
Another disadvantage of colour laser markable materials disclosed in for example EP-A 2719541 is the fact that the colour laser markable layers comprising a leuco dye and an IR dye are prepared from non-aqueous coating solutions making their production more cumbersome regarding health and safety regulations.
Still another disadvantage of such colour laser markable materials is their multilayer structure. The materials typically have three laser markable layers, one layer for each colour, and usually also intermediate layers between the laser markable layers to prevent colour contamination. Such a build-up makes their preparation complex and therefore economically less viable. Also, the physical properties of such a complex material may be negatively influenced by a lesser adhesion between two, or more, of the multiple layers making up the material.